Bumps In the Road
by dustytiger
Summary: Reid and Prentiss are happily married, but sometimes work and bumps get in the way of what they want, such as a case. AU in my Prentiss Reid world. This one is casefic-ey be warned.
1. Another Day at Work

Title: Bumps in the Road Part 1: Another Day at Work  
Author: Trista Groulx  
Rating: T  
Disclaimer: I do not own these lovely people, they belong to their network, creator, writers, actors and actresses who bring them to life. Don't sue you'll get debt and makeup and skin care products.  
Summary: Reid and Prentiss are happily married, but sometimes work and bumps get in the way of what they want.  
Notes: Another instalment in my Prentiss Reid series (Wedding Date Blues, Learning Something New, Who Celebrates Six Months, Drama Love and Parents, Planning the Big Day, Sometimes the Best Laid Plans). This one is more of a case fic, which a lot of drama thrown in there. Oh right I'm evil, sorry, didn't mean to be but it just worked out that way with this one.

* * *

Emily Prentiss woke up with a smile on her face. She moved in the bed a little bit, and found her husband, Spencer Reid's, lips. He let out a tiny grunt before his arms snaked around her, pulling her to him in a powerful hug. His eyes didn't even open. She laughed, Reid was not much of a morning person if he didn't have to be awake he didn't want to be. For the first few months they were married this would work. Now however there were mornings he still wanted to sleep.

"Spencer," she purred, running her hands up and down his chest.

"Emily it's sleep time," he groaned. "You had me up late last night."

"I had you up late last night? I thought I married a man with eidetic memory. He remembers the dates of every milestone in the time we have known each other, and the maps of every city he's ever been to, but he doesn't remember what he did to me last night. If anyone should be tired it should be me, you're the one who has an oral fixation."

"I didn't hear you complaining last night. Besides didn't you wake me up to make that oral fixation work to your advantage?" His eyes were still closed but his hands were slowly making their way down his back toward her ass.

"Mm, well maybe I did, still, you're the one who won't wake up."

"I'm awake."

"Your eyes are still closed."

His eyes popped open and he flipped her over onto the bed. She let out an excited squeal, as his lips began their journey at her neck line. The two of them were just starting to get comfortable when their phone began to ring. They both sighed, knowing that it was JJ calling about a case.

"Ever want to ignore it?" Prentiss asked him, drawing circles on his bare chest with her hand.

"Yeah, every time it rings. Then I realise they know where we live," he replied, getting up slowly. "Then I remember that JJ has our spare key, and can be a madwoman when she is on a mission. So I think I could continue whatever it is we are doing, but it would likely be the last time we did it, because I'd never get over someone walking in on us."

Prentiss laughed. "Fine, you're so shy Spencer Reid."

"You knew that when you married me Dolcezza."

She got up and began to get dressed while Reid took the phone. He spoke for a few minutes and began to get dressed himself. He was in a pair of brown corduroy pants, and a light blue button down shirt. Prentiss came out of bathroom, now fully dressed. Reid was putting on a brown pattern sweater.

"No," she said.

"What do you mean no?" he asked, knowing she was talking about his sweater. "I can dress myself."

"You can dress yourself, but you have no style sense. Now that we're married I can fix that. As much as I love you geeky side, you don't have to wear it on your sleeve. Just be glad I find something strangely sexy about those glasses of yours. That sweater was out-dated before you born." She was rifling through the closet. "So what's the case?"

"It's in Dallas, there are four women missing. They are all redheads, housewives and in their late thirties. They all disappeared from the same mall. There are no bodies, and no sign of the women but there are too many similarities for it be just a case of missing persons. We're meeting on the plane."

"All right, there's what I was looking for."

She handed him a plain dark purple sweater. He sighed and pulled it on over the button down shirt he was wearing. He didn't really like purple, but had learned the hard way not to argue with his wife. She said he looked sexy in purple, and she liked it. She smiled, kissing him softly, before they both grabbed their go bags. She took the keys from the hook on their way out the door.

They were soon at the air strip. As soon as they got within eyeshot of the rest of the team Reid's hand fell from where it had been on her back. Prentiss hated the feeling of losing his hand on her body. She found it comforting that he would have his hands on her when they were walking. Even though they had been married for over a year Reid was still the picture of professionalism as soon as they started work.

Even though Hotch had assured him that they could still act like themselves, Reid refused to bend his personal rules. One of which was that they not share a room when they were out of town. Prentiss had been so desperate to change this that she even told her mother. Knowing she would talk to Section Chief Strauss, telling her she had to bend the FBI's rules about agents sharing rooms. She told them that she would turn a blind eye to it. Still Reid said it was better if they acted like they always did when they were working.

Everyone began to get on the plane, taking their usual seats. Reid and Prentiss had taken to sitting next to each other, and this would sometimes lead them to curl up together in their sleep on the plan ride home. When Prentiss had asked him about that, Reid explained that the case was technically over, so they weren't really working. He also added the fact he had no couldn't control what he did in his sleep.

JJ began her presentation about the latest case as soon as the fasten seatbelt sign was shut off. She went through the victims in the case, who all looked eerily similar. The team knew that this was going to be a challenging case it would only be a matter of time before bodies began to turn up.

"This guy is taking a very specific kind of woman," Morgan said, staring at the pictures in front of them. "Maybe he's a collector?"

"It's possible," Hotch agreed. "There seems to be something more here though."

"These women probably remind him of someone, his wife or his mother, and she is either dead or she's left him so he's trying to replace her," Reid suggested.

"You could be onto something Reid," Rossi agreed. "But why would he take so many women in so few days?"

"He's trying to find the right one," Prentiss explained. "Just because she looks right doesn't mean she's acting the way he wants to her to. Maybe he's keeping them long enough to see if she'll change into who he wants."

"He doesn't want to have to re-live losing that person again," Morgan added. "Then these women should be fairly safe."

"For now," Rossi sighed. "We need a lot more in order to find this guy."

"Seeing where these women lived and were taken from will give us more ideas," Hotch assured the team.

They all continued to discuss theories about the unsub until the plane touched down. They all got into two SUVs and headed to the local police station when they arrived they were set up in a conference room.

"Are we going to have a press conference about this?" asked JJ.

"I want to hold up on that," Hotch admitted. "Drawing attention to this is going to make him do something rash. Right now we can assume that these women are safe. I want to be able to warn these women but we don't want him to escalate and hurt any of the victims."

Reid was looking at some maps, and looked up from what he was doing. Everyone knew that look on his face. He had already found something that they had missed, before Hotch could even organise his own thoughts as to where the team should go next.

"All these women live in suburban sub divisions," Reid explained. "I had to check the map, but I was right. If we can't do a press conference we could always go door to door in those neighbourhoods and warn people to be careful."

"All right, so I guess we're going to be doing good old fashioned door knocking for today," Hotch said. "I'll go see if there are any officers able to help us out, to get the most ground covered."

"Can I stay behind and work the geographical profile?"

"Sure. We'll call when we need you," Hotch agreed.

Hotch left the room in search of volunteers to help canvass the neighbourhood. They decided it would be easiest if each member of the team was paired up with one of the locals. Reid had made himself comfortable in the corner of the conference room as he worked on the geographic profile while Hotch and Rossi went to each of the victim's homes to see if anything there might give them some clue about what had happened. They knew the mall parking lot wouldn't be very helpful because there were too many people in and out.

Prentiss had been paired up with a young detective named Geoff Allen. There was something about him the rubbed her the wrong way. She had tried to talk Reid into tagging along with them, but he was onto something with his geographical profile, and told her that he needed to focus on it. She really didn't want to be alone with this guy, but she knew she wouldn't get Reid to change his mind. When he started something he always had to see it through.

After about an hour the detective was getting on Prentiss' last nerve. Anytime he tried to talk to her he stared at her chest. She would try to keep their conversations professional, but he always found a way to steer them in a different direction. She kept thinking that he couldn't possibly get any more annoying he would. She could feel his eyes on her chest when they spoke, and on her ass while they were walking. Even Reid wasn't that fixated on her.

"Okay, seriously, you need to stop that!" she snapped. "My eyes are all the way up here!"

Normally she wouldn't be bothered by someone looking at her like that, but she felt like she was a piece of meat on display. She wasn't normally this cranky, but she hated canvassing, especially with some cocky detective. She would have preferred to stay at the station, she would even have helped Reid with his geographical profile she was so annoyed, but she didn't know why. Normally she could tune guys like this out, but today she couldn't.

"Agent Prentiss you are so sensitive. Can't a man admire a beautiful woman?" he asked, smiling at her.

"He should try keeping his opinions to himself. We are working a case, there are four women missing and you are acting like a horny teenager!" she replied.

"What if we weren't working a case, Agent?"

"I would still be married, Detective."

"Ever thought about cheating?"

"You did not just say that!" She growled, wanting to punch him in the face. "I'm done working with you."

"Fine, you finish up this street, and the next one over and I'll keep going. You're the one who keeps telling me there are four women to think about."

"Fine by me I'll meet you back at the station."

Prentiss could not believe that the detective had actually said that. She tended to wear her rings on a chain when they were in the field. She was going to have choice words for his superiors when she got back the station. She knew that she shouldn't keep going on her own, but she was in the suburbs, she felt safe. It was only a few dozen houses, she'd be fine, then she'd call Reid to pick her up.

She watched Allen go off on the opposite direction and felt a sense of relief wash over her. She began to knock on doors. There weren't many people at home at that time of day, but it was the stay at home wives this guy was targeting so she just kept ringing on doorbells waiting for someone to answer. She would scan every once in a while to see if Allen came back, glad to not see him. She knocked on another door and was a little surprised to see an older man answer it.

"Who are you?" he grumbled.

"Emily Prentiss, I'm with the FBI," she replied, getting out her badge.

"FBI?!" he demanded. "What the hell are you doing here? I didn't do nothing wrong. Why are you here?"

"I'm just canvassing, there are four missing women. I'm just warning people, and asking if anyone has seen anything suspicious."

"I don't know nothing about any missing ladies."

"Then I'm sorry to have bothered you Sir."

Prentiss turned around to leave. This guy wasn't going to be able to help her. He wasn't in the demographic being targeted, and didn't seem to have the mental capacity to hide four women from anyone. She decided she needed to go back to the station, this was going nowhere. She was pulling out her cell phone when she felt something hit her over the head. She didn't even have time to react, before everything went black.

End part 1

Notes: All right, so this might be evil. I'm not going to draw it out too long I promise, it's only four parts, and the last part will more then make up for my evilness I hope… Next up "Where's my wife?"


	2. Where's my Wife?

Title: Bumps in the Road Part 2: Where's my Wife?  
Author: Trista Groulx  
Rating: T  
Disclaimer: I do not own these lovely people, they belong to their network, creator, writers, actors and actresses who bring them to life. Don't sue you'll get debt and makeup and skin care products.  
Summary: Reid and Prentiss are happily married, but sometimes work and bumps get in the way of what they want.  
Notes: I know that was a cliffhanger eh? I have a few more up my sleeve, and some drama. Then I'll be back to the happy smoopsies and fluffy wuffies, you'll see why at the end.

* * *

Reid looked up and saw the very cocky young detective Allan coming back into the station. He was surprised to see that he was alone. He had left with Prentiss a few hours ago, and Prentiss was not yet back.

"Where's Prentiss?" Reid asked.

"Who?" asked Allen.

"Agent Prentiss, Emily Prentiss my wife, the agent who went with you to canvass the neighbourhood."

"I thought she came back here. She looked pretty pissed when I last saw her. You'd think a beautiful woman would be used to being told she is gorgeous."

"You were hitting on my wife?" Reid asked, picking up his phone, and dialing Prentiss' number.

"I just told her she was hot, man. When she got all pissy with me I backed off. I didn't realise she was married." The detective went into his office.

"Emily answer the phone," mumbled Reid listening to endless ringing on the line. "Come on, Emily." He dialed the phone once again, and got no answer.

He went into the conference room where the Hotch, Rossi and JJ were. Morgan was still out with another detective canvassing. Reid was white as sheet, the three members of the team looked up, and knew there was something wrong immediately. It was not often that Reid looked that worried and lost.

"Spence?" JJ asked softly, putting her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, knowing there was something wrong.

"It's Emily," said Reid, surprising the team since he always called her Prentiss when they were at work. "That idiot detective Allen just came back. She didn't. She's not answering her phone."

"All right, we'll find her, Reid," said Hotch.

Reid fell into a chair, running his hand through his hair. He was feeling guilty. He should have gone with her like she had asked. He knew that the geographical profile needed to be done, but she didn't often ask him to go with her like that. He should have known something could happen. He never thought for a second that the detective she was with would leave her alone. There were rules to follow so that nothing like this happened to agents or officers.

"This is not your fault," JJ reassured him. "Emily is tough, you know that, she'll be fine."

"I'm just worried about her. If I had gone with her, like she asked me to, this never would have happened."

"That's not going to help right now. We thought we could trust the detectives here," Hotch explained. "Reid I'm going to need you step back from this case."

JJ had excused herself to make a few phone calls. First she called Morgan back to the station. She then called Garcia to see if she could track where Prentiss' phone was, or had been. She hoped that they would get some good news.

"Hotch I can't sit on my hands and do nothing. I can be professional even when it involves Emily," Reid defended.

"I know that, but if this is the same person a defence lawyer won't feel the same way?" Hotch asked.

"So what do I do? I can't just sit around the hotel and wait for news. We don't even know yet if this is connected and if you pull me off the case we could miss something. Emily doesn't fit victimolgy for this guy. I'm close something, I just need that missing piece."

Hotch sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "All right, you keep working on what you are working on until we find out if this connected."

Morgan came into the conference room. He knew something was going on, but he didn't know what it could be. He scanned the room and noticed the Prentiss wasn't there, and Reid was looking a little pale. Morgan was glad to not have to be canvassing anymore, but he had a feeling that whatever he had just walked into was going to be worse then what he had been doing.

"What did I miss? What's going on? Where's Prentiss?" Morgan asked.

"She's missing, Allen came back, alone, and Emily isn't answering her phone," Hotch explained, his phone began to ring, it was Garcia. "You're on speaker."

"All right, so I'm thinking that this guy who hurt Emily clearly doesn't know what he's doing. Her phone is still on, and it was super easy to track it down. It's in a residential area, probably in the same neighbourhood she was just in. It could even be in this guy's house."

"So this isn't connected," Rossi stated, relief washing over his face. "The unsub on the original case is too organised to leave her phone on. We'll talk with Allen, and find where her phone is and start a profile for whoever has Emily."

"Rossi, Morgan, go to the location Garcia pinpointed, JJ and I will talk with Allen."

"Seriously Hotch I want some words with that guy!" Morgan snapped. "You don't leave anyone in the field alone!"

"This isn't the time for that, we need to find out what happened to her. You can have your talk with Allen after we find Emily."

"Fine," Morgan grumbled.

"What am I supposed to do?" Reid asked.

"Nothing, Reid, your wife is missing," Hotch replied.

"So are four other men's wives, I can't stop looking for whoever took those women just because we don't know where Emily is."

"Can you keep focused working the original case?"

Reid nodded. "I can't stop. I need the distraction so I don't have to think about what might be happening to her right now."

"All right, keep working on whatever it is you've been working on. If you find your head isn't in it, just go back to the hotel, all right?"

"Sure."

Reid knew he couldn't just wait while there were four other women missing. Suddenly he understood what the husbands must be feeling, and he couldn't just abandon these women. The team had been called in to help for a reason, and he would help anyway he could. Reid wanted to help find Prentiss but he knew he would just get in the way in that case. He began to look over the maps again.

Morgan and Rossi meanwhile went to the parking lot and got into one of the FBI issued SUVs they had, and followed Garcia's directions to where Prentiss phone could be found. They looked around, they were on a residential street. They began to look around, hoping that it wasn't in one of the houses. They were both afraid to call the phone just in case the unsub decided to turn it off when he realised that someone knew she was missing.

"I got it!" Rossi called to Morgan, finding the phone under some shrubs.

Morgan came over, as Rossi pulled back the branches, revealing not just the cell phone, but also revealing Prentiss' wallet, FBI credentials, gun, and the chain she wore with her rings on it when she was in the field. They picked up and bagged all of the items, knowing it was not going to be easy to find her as she had no identification. There was blood on the necklace, and it had been pulled off, and broken.

"So we know this guy doesn't want us to find out that he hurt her. There's no telling where she was actually attacked, or where he might have brought her. Her things were placed here in hopes that we wouldn't find them," Rossi thought out loud.

"Which means we need to re-canvass this neighbourhood and someone here has already hurt an FBI agent today, and we don't know why or how badly," Morgan added.

"We also need to tell Reid that she's got nothing to identify her and we don't know where to start looking for her."

Rossi began to examine Prentiss' gun. He was relived to discover that it had not been fired. He knew that it didn't mean that she had not been shot, the unsub could have had a weapon of his own. Still he was relieved that there had not been a struggle. He had probably surprised her from behind. That couple with the fact that he had ditched anything that could identify her indicated that whoever had hurt he was a coward, and would likely not risk killing and FBI agent.

"I'd hate to be in his shoes right now," sighed Morgan. "So we start knocking on doors?"

Rossi nodded. "Yeah, I'll call for more people after we know where Allen last saw her."

"Does this feel like finding a needle in a haystack to you?"

"A little," Rossi admitted. "But we need to keep looking for her. I'm going to call Hotch and tell him what we've found."

Morgan nodded, and looked around at the houses that were nearby. He thought he noticed curtains moving a home across the street, but thought nothing of it. He knew that would be the first house he would go to when Rossi was done with his phone call. Rossi dialed Hotch and was relieved when he got an answer.

"What's going on?" Hotch asked.

"We found her phone, wallet, ID, weapon, and jewellery. Someone dumped it under a shrub out here. Morgan and I are going to start knocking on doors, but we're going to need help. Anyone in the area could have seen something."

"We'll come out after we talk with Allen, and round up some locals. I'll call the field office and see if we can get more manpower to get this moving quicker."

"You haven't talked to him yet?"

"He went out to lunch. He leaves an agent in the field alone to go missing, then goes out to lunch like nothing has happened."

"I want to crush that little piss ant," Rossi grumbled.

"Get in line, Dave. Looks like he's waltzing in now, we'd better catch him before he goes off on his own again."

"I'll let you talk to him. Good luck, try not to kick his ass. We'll call if we find anything else."

"Thanks, I'll try."

Hotch hung up his phone and then went over to the young detective, JJ following closely behind. The kid had a cup of coffee in his hand, and was surprised to see the two FBI agents coming toward him. He had already told the geeky one that claimed to be Agent Prentiss' husband that he had no idea where she could be.

"Is this about Prentiss?" he sighed.

"Yes it is, she's missing," Hotch said. "What happened out here to make you leave her alone?"

"I told her she was hot. I didn't know she was married to your boy Doctor Reid when I told her. She got pissed off and went her own way."

"You let her go canvass on her own, breaking all of the rules of an investigation?"

"It's not like we were in a ghetto. The woman was pissed, she looked like she was gonna chop my dick off. I might not know a lot about women but I know you back the hell off when she gets that look in her eyes."

"That look in her eyes?" JJ asked. "Seriously, she's also in law enforcement what's the worst she could do give you dirty looks all day? You risk both of your lives and careers over a few dirty looks."

"Lady you weren't there. You don't know what it was like."

JJ rolled her eyes, she could not believe this guy. She wanted to punch him the face. Her friend was missing and he didn't even seem to care that it was his fault. She knew that Prentiss could be a little intimidating when she wanted to be, but he shouldn't have let her go off on her own like that. Hotch also had to keep his emotions in check. He felt like his own sister was missing, but he needed to act like he gave a shit about this kid in order to get the information he needed.

"You were the last person to see her," Hotch explained calmly. "We need to know everything about what you were doing before you went off in different directions in order to find her."

"You saying I did something to her?"

"No!" JJ snapped. "I would hope you are not that stupid. You know what area she might have been in when she went missing. We need to know the last place you saw her, which way she was going, so that we might be able to figure out where we can find her."

Allen looked at the petite blonde woman in front of him. There was something about all the women on this team which made him uneasy. They were all so hot headed, he decided to look at Hotch who seemed to be more level headed, but still angry. Of course the man had looked angry the first moment he met him, so he felt safe talking to him.

"So you need to know where we were when I decided it was better if we just went our own ways?" asked Allen, Hotch nodded. "We were working east up Oakwood on the right side of the street. So I said I'd take everything on our map going east, and she could backtrack west. I gave her the smaller area, and I thought she'd call one of you to come pick her up or join her immediately."

"You don't know Prentiss. Is it normal for you to bend the rules a little around here?"

"Yeah, we work alone when we shouldn't all the time. I didn't think she'd go off on her own. If I thought she might I wudda followed her whether or not she liked it."

Hotch actually believed that kid. "So you just continued canvassing the rest of the houses?"

He nodded. "I gotta say I was surprised when Doctor Reid asked me where she was. She shoulda been done before me. She had under fifty houses to hit before she was done, I had triple that."

"All right let's go to where you last saw her."

"I'm going to go tell Spence what's going on," JJ said, excusing herself.

She really didn't want to go along with Hotch and Allen. Even though Hotch seemed to understand the kid, JJ didn't. All she could see was the person responsible for her friend not being there. Hotch and Allen went to parking lot, and drove to the area where he had last seen Prentiss, making phone calls on the way. He wasn't surprised to discover that Morgan and Rossi were still in the same area. He hoped that this would mean they would be able to find Prentiss quickly, as the unsub seemed to have a very precise comfort zone.

End Part 2

Notes: This one's a little long. I didn't mean to draw this out another chapter. I know the timeline is a little unbelievable, bear with me, working toward something and the muse went crazy twisted.


	3. Finding the Missing

Title: Bumps in the Road Part 3: Finding the Missing  
Author: Trista Groulx  
Rating: T  
Disclaimer: I do not own these lovely people, they belong to their network, creator, writers, actors and actresses who bring them to life. Don't sue you'll get debt and makeup and skin care products.  
Summary: Reid and Prentiss are happily married, but sometimes work and bumps get in the way of what they want.  
Notes: I'm so sorry for dragging this out so long. I totally had another idea for this, then I thought no I'll wait for the next part and just go full out fluff on that, so the person who gave me a plot bunny, (you know who you are) it's in the next part sorry I lied. This one's a little long, I needed to tie up some lose ends and drop a bomb. When you get to the part with the tattoos, think Slimey from Sesame Street in a different colour ;)

* * *

Morgan and Rossi didn't want to talk to the young detective. They both decided it would be better to focus on finding whoever had done this, then to blame the young detective. They had talked to a few of the neighbours, some of whom remember Prentiss being at their door. None of them had seen anything happen to her.

Morgan went and knocked on the door where he had seen the curtain move not even an hour before. There was vehicle in the drive way, but no one was answering. Morgan thought that this was suspicious. He knew he had seen that curtain move. There were no pets making noise, so he figured there had to be a person in the home. He decided to call Garcia.

"Hello my vision," she answered the phone. "How can I help you catch the creep that hurt Emily?"

"I'm not even sure this is gonna help Baby Girl," he explained. "But there's this house that seems to be ignoring us, but I keep seeing the curtains moving. It's bothering me."

"What's the address?"

"Seventy seven Oakwood Road."

Garcia began to type in the address, there was only one resident there since the house had been built. She began to frantically look for any information she could find on the man. She stared at the screen, and actually felt herself feeling upset for the man, even if he had hurt Emily she wasn't sure this man understood what he was doing.

"Oh, this is sad," Garcia murmured. "This guy has lived in the house since it was built seven years ago. His mother bought it for him before she died of cancer. She has it set up so all of his bills will be paid. He probably doesn't leave the house much. He's developmentally disabled."

"That would explain why he won't answer the door."

"Yeah, there are some articles here about the neighbours trying to push him out of the neighbourhood. They are trying to get him placed in a retirement home because they think he's a blight on the neighbourhood, since he doesn't really take care of the home."

"Do you think he could have hurt Emily?"

"I don't know. There's nothing here to indicate he's violent. But I'm sure he might have gotten scared if the FBI suddenly showed up on his doorstep, and he wouldn't understand why."

"Thanks Baby Girl, you're a genius."

"I know I am," she cooed. "Just find her okay?"

"I will I just need to figure out how to approach this guy."

Morgan wasn't sure what he should do. It was possible that this guy had hurt Prentiss, but if he wasn't careful he would never know what happened. He went over to Rossi, as well as Hotch to tell them what he had just found out. Morgan decided to call JJ to tell her what they had just found out.

At the station, JJ had gone into the conference room where Reid was still working the original case. He seemed to be pretty involved in what he was doing. She knocked softly to get his attention. He looked up from what he was doing, he looked sad and lost. She had never seen him look like that before, but she knew she would probably look the same if something ever happened to Will.

"Got anything?" JJ asked, not sure if he wanted to talk about what was going on with Prenitss.

"I'm a little more distracted than I'd like to be," Reid admitted. "But I'm close to something, and I'm going to keep working till I get it."

"Your wife is missing, you're allowed to be distracted."

"I feel like I owe to these victims to keep working their case while everyone else is looking for her, and I can't." He looked up staring right into her eyes. "You have bad news for me."

"How did you know?" JJ asked him.

"You get this look on your face before you have to tell them bad news. It's more pronounced when you have to tell a friend something bad."

"Morgan and Rossi found Emily's phone, as well as all of her identification, and her rings."

"So she could be anywhere and no one can identify her?"

JJ nodded. "I'm so sorry, Spence. They think they might have found the person who hurt her, but he's developmentally disabled, so they're not sure how much help he's going to be. You're going to have to decide if you want him interrogated and charged."

"If he can't understand what he did to her, I don't want him put in jail for the rest of his life, and I know that Emily wouldn't either. I feel like I'm drowning here JJ."

He looked down at the floor, and felt tears welling up in his eyes. JJ reached over and took his hand. The human contact sent him over the edge. The flood gates opened and tears began to fall down his face. He couldn't stop once he started. JJ pulled him close to her in a friendly hug, and he just cried.

"I'm scared," he admitted. "I keep expecting her to come in here, and tell me she's fine. I don't know where she is. I can't lose her JJ," he stammered.

"I know," she whispered. "I know Spence."

"I knew that something like this could happen, but I never thought it actually would. I just found her JJ, I don't know what I'd do without her."

"Emily is a fighter, she has to be all right."

Tears were still falling down his cheeks, and he started to sob. He was glad that no else in the team was there to see him break down like this. JJ had always been one of his best friends, and he knew that he could always trust her.

"We'll find her Spence, we know who hurt her, it's just a matter of finding out what he did with her," she said, rubbing his back. "You can't keep working this case, you're too distracted."

He then looked over her shoulder at the evidence board. Reid knew that he should stop working this case, but he couldn't let those other men down. He stood up slowly, and wiped his eyes. He then looked at the board, his mind spinning ideas. JJ knew the look that was crossing over his face. Whatever the missing piece had been he had just found it.

"What do you see?" she asked.

"This guy works at the mall," he said. "That's why they disappear from there. All we have to do is find an employee who has recently lost his wife or mother, who looks like the victims and we should be able to find these women."

"Are you sure?" JJ asked.

"Yeah, I am. I'm not up for actually finding this guy, but I'm sure the locals can get it done. At least I won't have to feel guilty about failing these women's husbands because my wife went missing."

"Spence you are something else, you're falling apart over Emily, and you still want to help complete strangers."

"That's my job," he stated.

It made perfect sense to him, and thought it would make sense to her as well. They had been called in to do a job, and he was going to see it through until he could say that he had done it. There were four other men out there feeling the same way he was feeling. If he couldn't help himself he could at least help them.

"I know, but sometimes you can have a personal moment at work," she assured him. "Emily is lucky to have you, you have such a big heart."

"I'll have a personal moment when I tell someone what I found. I need her to be all right."

"She will be Spence. I'll be her if you need me."

"Thank you."

Reid got up and went to the lead detective on the case, who had called the team in for help. The man look at Reid sadly as he came into his office. Reid knew that it was a mixture of guilt over his subordinate having left Prentiss alone which caused her to go missing, and because he too was married and would have been a wreck if it were his wife who were missing. After a friendly handshake, the two men sat down.

"I'm sorry about your wife, we are going to allot as many resources as we have in order to find her," Merrick Jones assured Reid.

"Thank you, Agent Hotchner has already gotten the Dallas field office out in search for Emily. I think your resources might be better utilized looking for the four missing women who brought us here?"

"You shittin' me Doctor Reid?"

"I never understood that term, but no. I have been working on geographical profile, and I believe that I have a profile for you."

"All right, thank you."

Reid went on to tell Jones about his theories, the man listened intently. He was glad to hear that he might actually have somewhere to go in order to solve this case. He thanked Reid once again, and Reid went back to the conference room. As soon as he went back in the room he realised that he had nothing to do. He had handed the case back to the local police, and he couldn't work Prentiss' case because of their relationship. All he could do was sit around and wait for news. He hated that feeling, he called Hotch.

"Do you have anything yet?" Reid asked hopefully.

"We might, how about you?" Hotch asked.

"Thank you for being vague. Yes, I finished the geographical profile which gave me a fairly solid profile from what we had already discussed. I gave it the lead detective, who told me he would keep me updated on what is going on. What can I do now?"

"Nothing right now, you'll just have to wait for news. I'm sorry Reid."

Reid sighed loudly before he hung up the phone. Hotch knew that not doing anything would probably make Reid crazy, but he knew that it was a bad idea to have him work the case. Morgan and Rossi were convinced that man in the house that looked abandoned had to know something and were trying to get him to answer the door. They refused to stop knocking on the door and ringing the doorbell.

"Go away!" the man shouted through the door. "This is my home!"

"We know, Sir, we need to talk. We'll leave you alone after we talk," Morgan told him.

The door opened slowly. The old man stood there looking at the two FBI agents on his doorstep. He looked scared, and confused standing there. Morgan knew he hadn't meant to hurt anyone, and he was still more angry with Allen then he was with the man standing in front of him.

"I already told you that I don't know where those ladies are," he sighed.

"I know, and we might have found the person who hurt those women. But our colleague is missing, the agent you spoke to before," Rossi explained, his voice soft.

"Oh," he said. "I thought she was here to take me away from here for hurting those ladies. I didn't mean to hurt her."

"We know, but we need to find her."

"I brought her to the park."

Rossi radioed Hotch to tell him what they had just discovered. The team raced to the park where them man had told them he had brought her. He had assured them that she was still breathing when he had left her there, but there was no sign of her. They knew that this meant that they were now looking for a Jane Doe, who had, hopefully, been admitted to the hospital in the last few hours.

"Hotch, I'm going to call local hospitals and morgues see if there have been any Jane Does admitted in the last twenty four hours that could be her," JJ said softly. "You said there was quite a bit of blood at the scene."

"Good idea, JJ. Try not to let Reid hear when you call the morgues."

"I will. He's a wreck right now."

"Wouldn't you be if Will were missing?"

She nodded. "You're right."

JJ began to make some calls. She was starting to get somewhere with one of the hospitals. They had admitted a Caucasian woman, in her late thirties, with dark brown hair, and brown eyes. The only problem was that there had been two. One had mostly head injuries, while the other one had succumb to stabbing injuries. JJ scurried into the office Reid was in, he was going through police files about the suspect, trying to get into his head.

"Hey, Reid, does Emily have any identifying marks or tattoos?" she asked.

Reid looked up, white as a sheet, he knew what this meant. "She has a birthmark that looks like an acorn on the hairline of her neck. And – she'll kill me if I tell you that."

"Reid! I think she'll get over it, that birthmark is hard to find."

"Okay, okay, she has a tattoo of a bookworm on her right hip."

"A bookworm?"

"Yes, a cartoon worm," he began.

"It's blue with darker blue stripes and glasses?" asked the voice on the other end of the phone.

"Yes, yes I guess so. That's Emily Prentiss. Tell me she's…"

"We expect her to come out of it. She has a few minor head injuries, we have her sadated until we found her family."

"We're on our way," JJ said interrupting the person and hanging up. "I found her she's going to be fine. Do you want to go see her?"

"What kind of question is that? How fast can you drive?"

Reid was practically sprinting though the police station running toward the FBI issued SUVs. JJ grabbed her purse, and took off after her colleague. She was glad he wasn't trying to drive himself. They got into the car and JJ handed him her cellphone.

"Call the rest of the team and tell them she's at The Angel of Grace of hospital."

"Sure," said Reid, fumbling with the phone. He realised he had left his phone in his messenger bag at the station.

"A bookworm?" she asked again after he had made the calls.

"We got them when we were in married Vegas. I have a matching one. We both like to read, and we wanted to do something crazy while we were there since weren't married by Elvis."

JJ laughed. "That's really kind of cute that you got matching tattoos. I won't tell the rest of the team."

"Thank you."

He was glad when he saw the hospital come into view. JJ dropped him off at the entrance, and went to find a parking spot. Reid ran into the hospital, and a nurse directed him toward her room. When he got there, a doctor was there.

"Who are you?" asked the doctor.

"I'm Doctor Spencer Reid, Emily is my wife," he replied. "How is she doing?"

"Doctor Reid, I'm Doctor Rice, your wife is going to be just fine. She has some extensive bruising but nothing more serious then that."

"Then why is she sedated?" he asked, confused.

"With her being admitted as a Jane Doe I thought it would be best to keep her sedated for a day or two until found her family. I didn't want to put any more stress on the foetus if she didn't remember who she was or if she had no one in her life."

"Foetus?" asked Reid.

Reid could not believe what he was hearing. Prentiss was pregnant and he had no idea. He went slightly white. His mind was racing, wondering if she knew and hadn't told him the truth. He was certain she wouldn't keep something like that from him, but for what he understood women knew when they were pregnant. But she hadn't gained any weight, she wasn't getting sick in the morning, and she didn't seem moody to him. As he thought he realised it had been a while since she had stopped his advances due to cramps and her period, but he just thought that she was getting that while they were on cases and couldn't do anything anyway.

End part 3

Notes: Okay I know I'm still evil, but hey at least she's found, and that the case part was not totally believable, but evs I needed it for the plot bunny so deal. Up next is, "A Different Kind of Bump" and some happy stuff since the other stuff is dealt with, mostly, kind of…

Ps I have some smart readers who should not be surprised by this, of course I used "Bump" for this reason I'm not that good with titles remember?


	4. A Different Kind of Bump

Title: Bumps in the Road Part 4: A Different Kind of Bump  
Author: Trista Groulx  
Rating: T  
Disclaimer: I do not own these lovely people, they belong to their network, creator, writers, actors and actresses who bring them to life. Don't sue you'll get debt and makeup and skin care products.  
Summary: Reid and Prentiss are happily married, but sometimes work and bumps get in the way of what they want.  
Notes: Okay you had to know what was coming here. I am probably the most predictable person in the world. I'm thinking there are gonna be two more parts to this, maybe three. I promised genius babies so here's one!

* * *

Reid quietly followed the doctor into Prentiss room. His mind still reeling about the information he had just been given. He knew that he should say something to the doctor but he was in shock. He had no idea that she might be pregnant. He was thrilled and scared at the same time. Prentiss was supposed to be there holding his hand and quelling his anxiety when he found out he was going to be a father.

"You didn't know she was pregnant?" asked Reid, as the doctor opened the door, for him.

"No," he replied. "I would assume she didn't either."

He tried not to gasp when he saw her. The bruising wasn't as bad as it could be she still looked like his wife. He went over to the bed, and ran his hand along her face gently. He wanted her to wake up so he could find out if she knew that she was pregnant. He stared at her. She didn't look any different, when he had seen her the night before she didn't look any bigger to him.

Reid assumed that this meant that this was a new development and he would have time to adjust the fact that he was going to be a father. He knew that forty weeks was a long time for them to get everything they needed ready, and for him to be ready to be a father, and she couldn't be much more then four to six weeks along. That still give him time to prepare for this.

"I'll have an ultrasound tech come in when she is awake to see where in the pregnancy she is at," the doctor told Reid. "It shouldn't take too long for her to awake. I stopped putting the sedative in her drip when your colleague called. It's very mild, and won't hurt the baby."

"Thank you, Doctor," Reid said shaking the doctor's hand.

Reid sat down at the end of the bed, and took her hand in his. He wanted her to open her eyes. He was terrified about the thought of being a father, and he knew that she would be able to help calm him down. He gently brushed a piece of hair behind her ear, not even noticing the bruises on her face, he was happy that she was going all right. He hoped she wouldn't sleep too much longer.

"You scared me Dolcezza," he said softly. "I'm glad you're all right." He leaned in and kissed her forehead. "I love you."

JJ knocked on the door gently then let herself into the room. Reid looked up, and smiled at JJ. She smiled back at him, going to the other side of the bed and taking Prentiss' other hand. It was not often that Reid let his guard down around the members of the team. JJ had been amazed as she tried not to watch their exchange through the window. She had never seen Reid so caring and gentle before.

"Spencer?" whispered Prentiss, after what felt like a lifetime of silence.

She was struggling to open her eyes fully. She felt like she had been run over by a freight train. The last thing she remembered was telling that detective off, and going down a different street to do interviews. She hadn't thought she was in any danger, but since she was laying in a hospital bed she had been wrong. Her eyes began to focus and she could see the concern in Reid's eyes. Whatever had happened had really scared him.

"I'm right here," he assured her. "So is JJ, and the rest of the team is on their way, they just need to deal with a few things."

"What happened to me?"

"You were canvassing and you spooked an old man with developmental problems who thought you were there to take him from his home. He hit you in the head, and brought you to a park where someone called for help. I'm just glad we found you."

"I don't remember any of that," she was starting to worry as she tried to bring the memories back.

"Relax, or the doctor is going to sedate you again. She doesn't want more stress to the baby after the attack."

"Baby?" both JJ and Prentiss asked.

"Yes, it was a surprise to me too. I never thought I'd be able to tell that we were going to have a baby."

Prentiss laughed. "I can't believe I didn't know already. But it would explain why my rings weren't fitting right anymore. Where are they? Where's my chain?"

"Having swelling of the extremities is fairly normal in a pregnancy," Reid rambled off automatically. "The person who hurt you broke your chain, and took everything to identify you. I'll buy you a new one, and we'll see if your hands stay the same size after you have the baby."

"Morgan has everything that they found while you were missing. He says he'll bring everything with him after he's been to the station," JJ assured her.

There was another knock on the door, it was the ultrasound technician. She came in with the machine, smiling. Prentiss' hands had gone to her belly protectively. She was feeling very guilty for getting hurt on a case while she was pregnant. Although she didn't know it, she knew she should have. How could she not know she was pregnant? She had put the baby in danger, and not knowing didn't seem like a fair excuse. She looked up at the ultra sound technician, and hoped that finding how far along she was would help her feel less guilty about not knowing.

"I think you two will want to be alone for this," JJ said, kissing Prentiss' cheek, softly. "Congratulations. I'm going to go find everyone, I'm sure they're all going to start showing up soon. I won't tell them your big news."

"Thank you JJ," Prentiss said softly, as JJ left the room.

"All right Miss Prentiss," said the tech. "Are you ready to see your baby. Is this the father?"

"Yes, we're ready. This is my husband, Doctor Spencer Reid. Spencer, are you ready for this?"

"I think so," Reid assured her. "I want to know how long it's going to before I'm going to be a father."

"Me too, about being a mother though. You are happy right?"

"Yes, I am, I'm kind of terrified but we talked about why already. I'm nervous about it, but I'm excited at the same time. I've never felt like this before"

"Good. I'm excited."

Reid smiled at her and squeezed her hand gently to reassure them both that this was real. Prentiss smiled at him as the tech gently pulled up her gown, and put the wand on her belly. They were both nervous and excited as they stared at the screen. Reid's jaw dropped when he saw the image on the screen. He couldn't believe it that was their baby growing inside of her. He watched at the image on the screen moved around, he was fascinated by it. The 3D image was a little strange, but he could make out some more of the details. He watched the screen, fascinated.

"Would you like to know the sex?" asked the tech.

"You can tell this early?" asked Prentiss, surprised, thinking she was only a few weeks along.

"Early? You're about twenty weeks along judging by the size and development of the fetus."

"Twenty weeks that's half way. I haven't had any kind of pre-natal care. I haven't been taking care of myself properly."

"We can start you on pre-natal care right away, as long as you take care of yourself throughout the rest of your pregnancy the baby will just fine. You should be higher risk at your age, but everything seems to be developing normally, you're luck Miss Prentiss. Now would you like to know the sex?"

"I would," Reid whispered, not believing what he had just heard.

"That would be great; we have a lot of preparation and half the time to get it all done. Knowing what we are having will help lot."

"All right, good. Miss Prentiss, Doctor Reid you are going to be welcoming a daughter to your family."

Prentiss looked at Reid, her eyes sparkling as she smiled. She could tell that Reid was excited too. She pulled him toward her and kissed him gently. Mostly to make sure that this was real. Reid felt suddenly far less terrified about this new developmen. Prentiss always had a way of reassuring him, and he was glad. He started to feel more and more excited as he watched the images on the screen.

"I am impressed by her developing considering the stress of your job and the lack of pre-natal care. It's funny she keeps touching all of her fingers and toes. Almost like she is counting them," laughed the tech.

"She takes after you already Spencer. She's not even in the world yet and she still needs to figure things out," laughed Emily.

"My mom always said that in her first ultra-sound it looked like I was counting my fingers and toes too. But the technology was not as good as it is now, and the technician told her that it was impossible," Reid said.

"You're kidding right?" asked the tech.

"No, I'm not. I also escaped that swaddle blanket thing within an hour in the nursery. Apparently the nurses tried a few times to keep it like that, and they gave up on trying. My mom said I always wanted to examine everything from the moment I was born."

"Are you some kind of genius or something?"

"I guess so. Or a magician depending on how you look at it."

Prentiss laughed, and then tech put her gown back down. The tech then gave them some print outs. Reid looked at the pictures uncertainly, but a big grin had come across his face when he felt Prentiss hand in his rubbing his palm with her thumb.

"There are your first baby pictures," she said. "Congratulations. There seems to be a group of people waiting to see you. Would you like to see them Miss Prentiss?"

"Yes, please let them in."

The tech left the room, allowing the team in. They all crowded around the bed, to make sure that Prentiss really was all right. Reid meanwhile was dialing Garcia to let her in the activities in a way.

"You're reached the Devine Miss P, how can I serve you?" Garcia drawled into the phone, knowing she was on speaker.

"Not looking for any services Garcia," Reid assured her. "I just thought you'd like to hear for yourself that Emily is doing all right."

"Aw, Muffin you make my heart swell. If I didn't love your wife I would try to steal you away. You could learn a thing or two from Doctor Reid, Derek."

"You wish Baby Girl," laughed Morgan.

"Who was that?" asked Rossi.

"An ultrasound technician," Prentiss replied.

"Why would you need an ultrasound?" asked Hotch.

"You would think that the man with the son would know why a woman needs an ultrasound," Garcia laughed.

"You're pregnant?" asked Rossi.

"Yeah, we just found out," explained Prentiss.

"Can I see the pictures?" asked JJ, Prentiss handed her the pictures. "Either you are having some kind of giant genius baby or you are pretty far along."

"The tech seems to think I'm twenty weeks along."

"Twenty weeks?!" the two women asked shocked.

"How did you just find out?" asked Morgan. "Isn't there like all kinds of symptoms and stuff that are hard to miss."

Prentiss glared at Morgan. "No vagina no opinion!" she snapped.

"There it is. Moodiness, it was a simple statement. I do have sisters. They had all kinds of symptoms. Crazy mood swings, eating nasty ass food, getting a big pregnant belly, and some stuff a brother doesn't need to know about his sister."

Prentiss laughed. "I haven't had any of that. I'm lucky I guess. I didn't think that my fingers being swollen meant anything, or I would have taken a test. And I certainly wouldn't have continued canvassing on my own."

"Well it's a good thing the little fella is a fighter like his parents," said Rossi.

"She's a girl," said Reid rather defensively.

"Ooo!" exclaimed Garcia, who still on speaker phone. "It's about time someone on this team has a non-nose breathing "Y" chromosomer!"

"Baby Girl you sound awfully bitter," Morgan mentioned. "Do I need to have a man to man with Lynch about treating you right?"

"As much as I love you Big Boy, Kevin would shit his pants if decided to have talk with him. He's just so clueless. Emily's been dating Reid for like a year and a bit."

"A year and eight months, two weeks and three days, actually," corrected Reid.

"Thanks, for that clarification, that doesn't make me feel better Doctor Adorable," huffed Garcia. "Anyway they've been dating for not even two years, and Emily's got an adorable engagement, a Vegas wedding, an interrupted wedding party and now she gets a baby too! I've been dating Kevin for four years and I got squat! So right now boys suck and kind of smell. No offense to you lovely profilers or anything, I'm just happy to hear that someone is bringing another little girl into the world."

Prentiss laughed. "I'm pretty happy about that too this team does need few more ladies."

"I can see another advantage to carrying a girl baby," laughed JJ. "They don't seem to make themselves at home, while you are miserable, bloated and huge. How are you twenty weeks along? I felt like a blimp with Henry by then, and you don't even look like you're pregnant. You didn't even know that you were pregnant, that hardly seems fair."

"Every pregnancy is different," Reid explained. "A lot of people seem to think that the pregnancy is different, even easier depending on the sex, but it's all about genetics. Every pregnancy is as unique as the child it produces. It has nothing to do with the sex of the baby."

"Some genius has been doing his baby research," laughed Garcia. "And before he even knew he was a daddy to be. You really are a special person Spencer Reid."

"I thought that learning as you go wasn't exactly the best course of action," Reid defended.

"That's what most people do Spencer," Prentiss noted. "They fly by the seat of their pants."

"I've told you before Dolcezza I'm not most people."

Reid realised as soon as he said it that he had called her by her nickname in front of everyone, and turned ten shades of red. The nickname that he had found for her was something very personal to him. He knew that he was with his family of sorts, but this was a wall her wasn't sure he wanted to tear down. Prentiss squeezed his hand to try to reassure him; but he still felt like the kid in the group standing there about to be teased by a group of people who were older then him.

"There's a term I haven't heard in a long while," Rossi chuckled. "I used to call my first wife that, until she ended up being ex-wife number one."

"There's nothing to get all blushy about Junior G-man," Garcia assured the young doctor, knowing that he had turned red without having to see him. "It's perfectly normal to have nicknames for people you care about, it's sweet. Look at all the nicknames I have, myself and for my friends. There is nothing to be all worried about."

Reid laughed. "I guess you're right. It's good to have a nickname for someone you love."

Prentiss squeezed Reid's hand, and told him, "you need to say that in front of everyone more often."

"I'll try."

"Thank you."

Reid leaned in and kissed Prentiss gently. He knew that he needed to let his guard down more often in front of everyone. He wasn't the genius kid who graduated high school a twelve anymore. Although he was still the youngest member of the team he wasn't just some kid anymore. He was a part of the team. He was one of their peers, as well as a happily married man with a child on the way, but t was still hard for him to accept that he was their equal rather then some kind of joke. But Prentiss was helping him get over those fears. He knew that he needed to start bending some of his personal rules, he could let his guard down around his second family.

Doctor Rice came into the room a few minutes later, and the rest of the team left, glad to be sure that she was going to be all right. She was glad that she was able to talk the doctor into releasing her. She just wanted to go back to the hotel and curl up with Reid and forget about how she had gotten into the hospital in the first place. She wanted to focus on celebrating the good news.

The End

Notes: Okay so that's not at all where I wanted to go with this, but I think I like it anway… back to the fluff tho seriously. There is gonna be an "M" epilogue for this one, and then probably two more four part parts, maybe three but I don't think I'm up for that I have other plot bunnies gnawing my brain! Let me know what you think, thank you for sticking with this, it's so much longer then I had ever planned. I always love to hear what you think


End file.
